Cyber Bullying

As digital natives, younger generations rely heavily of technology and cannot see a world without it. With this mentality, it has become evident that although technology has its benefits, there are also many cons. Cyber bullying is one of these cons, and has been on the increase with each passing year. What is cyber bullying exactly? One may ask… It is simply the misuse of communication technologies where one person sends deliberate hurtful messages and images to another person. The result of such actions can go so far as to be taken to court for trial. With facts such as:

• Nearly 43% of children have been bullied online
• 81% of young people think bullying online is easier to get away with than bullying in person.
• Only 1 in 10 victimes will inform a parent or trusted adult of their abuse.
• Girls are about twice as likely as boys to be victims and perpetrators of cyber bullying.

(http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-cyber-bullying)

Shouldn’t there be more action taken so as to stop it? What drives someone to virtually harass someone with the protection of being anonymous? If people created the internet and built a community, why can’t the same people take measures to minimize and eventually delete cyber-bullying from existence?

Visit below Cybersmart for more information, and games about cyber awareness!

Constructivism Vs Objectivism

To answer the question, how does the social constructivist theory relate to ICT learning experiences?, there must first be an understanding of what constructivism actually means and the effect that the opposite strategy might have on a ‘digital native’ – That is, which would be more beneficial, the constructivist approach, or objectivism? The social constructivist theory focuses on a child’s ability to build upon what they already know. The teacher does not assume that the child has no previous knowledge and works with the child, evidently also learning from them. With the growing use of ICT in schools, the constructivist theory allows for the proper use of technology to be used as an assisting teaching aid in education, which allows each independent learner to learn at their own pace. The aim of constructivism is to open up opportunities to socialize and learn from others to create a bigger, broader understanding of a topic. In contrast to this theory, objectivism is like transmitted learning. It’s the direct approach whereby the teacher focuses the entire learning experience solely based on content with no relatable experiences where the child can relate and construct their own meaning. It is a very strict and centers around having the children be taught what they must essentially know at which stage they are at. Traditional views of teaching usually don’t involve cooperative learning amongst students which can alter a student’s motivation to learn. There is no problem solving involved which has been proved to be a crucial skill in every day life. To answer the question, the constructivist method of learning I more flexible in the way the curriculum can be taught to the student so that they understand and actually learn. Contrastingly, using old school methods just objectivism, limits the strategies a teacher could potentially use to engage and effectively teach her/his students.

Blogging.

Blogging is a public social network that allows each individual to personally publish and continuously update their own ‘news’. This news is customized to suit the individual and their interests which can vary from a sports blog, comedy blog or fashion blog… Literally anything. It can incorporate videos, YouTube clips, photos/images, sounds and music and even links to other social networking sites (ie; Twitter). Blog sites like ‘Wordpress’ allow these links to show live feeds of what is happening. Blogs aren’t just one way sites- anyone who can view the blog is able to comment, like and share sources creating a vast web of discussions. As a result of these discussions, blogging evidently becomes and entire community of people who share similar interests. With the assistance of todays available technology, with the constant increasing use of this technology, learning has effectively moved on from just face-to-face interactions and incorporated learning devices such as mobile learning. This is due to the faster, versatile and more interactive opportunities that mobile learning provides. It can be connected anywhere and with each passing day, more and more apps are being created for educational purposes such as the Star Walk – This is an app created for astronomy lovers. It allows a person to view the galaxy and look up facts on the planets, star constellations – basically everything in the universe. With these fun and interesting apps created, used smartly in a classroom setting, will provide more opportunities for children to explore new areas of learning. Essentially if ‘fun’ is incorporated into teaching, children will be more eager and intrigued to learn and participate in classroom activities.

 

Visit the following twitter link for any questions or to find out more!

Macarena Rojas

 

Education through Technology.

Today, we were posed the question – ‘Do computers and online learning enhance learning?’. Personally, I think that there are plenty of benefits to using computers in teaching. However, I also acknowledge the negative side to perhaps incorporating too much technology as a form of teaching.
But, focusing on the good instead of the evil, computers and online learning provide a more hands on, practical approach to learning that intrigues and interests children to, hopefully, encourage them to learn new experiences. If the child’s attention is captured, then they will be able to learn more, further enhancing brainpower for each individual. It has been proven time and time again that creating an activity with ‘real life’ situations specifically created for the children in the classroom, will not only help with literacy but also assist with visual learning through the use of sound, audio, animation etc. It is clearly evident that being in the 21st Century it’s already expected that technology would somehow play a part in our everyday lives. Not using computers or participating in online learning now a days would seem almost silly. Because technology is a quicker way of learning, it assists greatly in time management, allowing more time for other activities to take place to further develop a child’s abilities. Also, the types of activities available for online learning are usually goal orientated meaning that, the child must work towards a goal in order to move forward.
Online activities benefit children greatly in getting them involved and excited to learn. And if all this advancement in teaching strategies meant that technology had to be used as a tool, would not using computers be taking a step backwards?

Children being actively engaged through IWB learning.